This chapter covers various features of Fireworkz which are not covered elsewhere in the documentation
It includes sections on:
You can use the Names facility in Fireworkz to reference the contents of number cells within text, or even within other documents. Names can be used to create variables, to refer to numbers or data within the text in a text cell, or to create links between documents.
For example, you may want to refer to the total shown in a table in the text which describes the table.
If more than one document is open you have access to all the names which have been defined for all the open documents. Names are an excellent way to control external references.
To set up names, use the Names facility accessed from the
.Total
.
The more names that you create in a document, the more important it is that their names should be clearly descriptive.
Fireworkz has some rules about the names which you can give to your names. These are to prevent Fireworkz from misinterpreting names as cell references. These are the same rules as are applied to custom function names: see the Custom Functions section of this guide.
You can use names in some quite sophisticated ways to provide a range of additional features to your documents. Remember that a name does not have to contain a number or formula; it can contain any kind of information, entered as a string or a date.
Names can be used to insert variables in text. For example, you could be writing about a product with a code name. By defining a name with the products code name, you can easily change it in all documents containing the name by changing the value of the name.
To do this:
You can use names to enter numerical variables in formulae.
For example, you could create a name vat_rate
, to enter the value 0.20 in any formula or cell.
If the VAT rate was decreased, you could then change the definition of the name, and all your formulae using it would be updated.
When you want to refer to a name within a section of text, you should follow these steps:
When you want to add a name to a formula, you can do so using the function selector.
The mail merge facility in Fireworkz creates personalised mailings from a combination of two files. One should be a document containing a list of names and addresses in a tabular/spreadsheet format, the other a text document which contains references to the fields in the address list.
When you print the mail shot document, a copy of the document will be printed for each names and address in the list. Each copy will contain details of one entry in the list.
You can use quite a wide range of document types as the basis for the address list in your mail shots. You have two options:
Fireworkz requires the names and addresses to be held in rows, with each column acting as a distinct field. For accurate mail merge, a particular column in a document must always have the same type of information, such as surname or postcode. If the type of contents of a column differ in each row, you may find it difficult to set up mail merge precisely.
It does not matter if there are blank cells in some rows. You can instruct Fireworkz to shuffle these out when the address is placed in the target document.
The easiest way to set up your mail shot is to open the document containing the name and address list at the same time as the text document is open. This gives you more feedback on what you are actually entering into your document.
When you add fields to your document, you are telling Fireworkz that when it prints the merged document it should include the contents of that column in the selected row for that copy of the letter.
Fields are inserted by number, which is the column number. As columns are usually displayed by letter in worksheet documents, you will have to do a quick conversion before inserting the field.
To insert a field:
You can add as many fields as you like, or use the same field more than once in a document. If you enter two fields next to each other, remember to enter a space or appropriate punctuation between them, as Fireworkz will not do this automatically.
To tell Fireworkz which file is the one containing the names and addresses:
In some cases, such as addresses, there may be blank fields in some records in the database. These will appear as blank lines in your document, unless you take the following steps:
Once you have followed these steps you are ready to print your mail merged document.
Before you can do this, you must have both the text document and the address list loaded, and a printer driver loaded.
To print the merged document, simply click the Print dialogue box.
button in theThis will print a copy of the document for each row in the selected database.
To print a test copy for any row in the address list: